Curriculum

Learning Framework

A whāriki that empowers the child and carries our aspirations
Our centre’s learning framework is based on New Zealand Early childhood curriculum- Te Whāriki, is the national curriculum document for early childhood education (ECE), to be used with all children from birth to school entry.

Underpinning Te Whāriki is the vision that children are,

competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society.

The whāriki or woven mat is used as a metaphor for the ECE curriculum, in which four curriculum principles are interwoven with five curriculum strands. Together, these principles and strands give expression to the vision for children that are at the heart of Te Whāriki.

Teachers in our centre weave together the principles and strands, in collaboration with children, parents, whānau and communities, to do our programme planning to create positive learning outcomes for children.

Te Whāriki is based on Four Principals:

• Empowerment | Whakamana –
The early childhood curriculum empowers the child to learn and grow.

• Holistic Development | Kotahitanga –
The early childhood curriculum reflects the holistic way children learn and grow.

• Family & Community | Whānau tangata –
The wider world of family and community is an integral part of the early childhood curriculum.

Programme Planning

Our programme planning here at Creative Garden can be summarised by a quote below:

“The ways in which, in our everyday practice, we [children, families, whānau, teachers and others] observe children’s learning [notice], strive to understand it [recognise], and then put out understanding to good use [responding].”
(Drummond, 1993, p. 13)

Our everyday practice in programme planning involves the following:

Noticing
Observing and carefully listening to the children by focusing on their strengths, interest, needs and behaviours; including (but not limited to) their skills, knowledge, strategies, attitudes, working theories and dispositions, which compose the children’s learning identity.

Recognising
We strive to understand children’s learning through our strong relationship and knowledge about each child, and the context in which their learning is taking place.

Responding
We acknowledge the children’s learning by taking the necessary action and plan the appropriate programme to affect their further learning, These would require active listening, conversation, scaffolding, celebrating, consolidating and inspiring the children to explore, learn and develop as competent and life long learners.

Reflection / Evaluation
The purpose of reflection / evaluation is to make informed judgements about the quality and effectiveness of our programme. Our reflection / evaluation procedures emphasise on the quality of provision and make use of all forms of assessment of children’s learning and development, which will identify whether the environment and programme are providing for the needs of all children in our setting. It is important that the curriculum whāriki as a whole, or a range of experiences in the programme, are modified if they are not working well to meet the needs of the children and the goals of the curriculum or planning.

Our Partenership

At Creative Garden, we are committed to establish close working relationships with parents and Whaanau to honour their primary role as first & foremost educators of their child. Therefore we value your input during your time at the centre. This can be achieved through your input into our programme planning, policies, procedures, parent evenings, questionnaires, facebook page and informal discussions with our teachers on day to day basis.
Our monthly newsletter is sent home at the end of each month.

Storypark
We are delighted to offer our families access to online portfolio system Story Park. It is a great online tool to establish stronger relationships with families and to send updates on learning moments of your child. You can also share these moments with your extended families in any part of the world.